Synology announces DiskStation DS415play, shipping August

Synology announced today the DiskStation DS415play network-attached storage (NAS) server. This a four-bay server very similar to the DS412+ , but which supports support hardware video transcoding.

Synology says the new server is designed to deliver- full 1080p HD video to nearly all media-streaming devices on the market.

Other servers on the market, including those from Synology, already have the support for media streaming but rely on the software for media transcoding which hinder over system performance during heavy streaming tasks. The DS415play is designed to handle media streaming, while still offering fast performance for other services. It's designed to be the digital hub of households with lots of media streaming needs.

Other than the built-in hardware transcoding capability, the new server shares a similar feature set with the rest of multiple-bay NAS servers from Synology, such as the DS412+ or the DS1513+ . And that means it has all you can expect from a NAS server -- possibly more.

The DS415play comes with two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports.

Synology

Out of the box, the server is powered by the latest DiskStation Manager (DSM 5.0), 1GB of system memory and a 1.6GHz dual-core CPU. Unlike the DS412+, it has only one Gigabit Ethernet port instead of two. It does come with two USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports, to host extra storage and printers.

The server can house four hard drives of up to 5TB each to offer up to 20TB, before you need to resort to the peripheral ports. It works with any standard SATA hard drive, but Synology recommends the WD RED hard drives with it. Synology says it has sustained data speeds of around 100MBps, which is on par with that of the DS412+.

The new DiskStation DS415play will be available later this month sans included hard drive for a suggested price of $540. Pricing for other markets is not available at this time.

About The Author

CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.